About Blechnet

Blechnet

blechnet is the specialist medium for sheet-metal and tube processing, published by the Vogel Communications Group. Since its 2002 first issue, the trade magazine — appearing six times a year with a distributed circulation of around 10,000 copies — has presented the complete process chain in manufacturing: the cutting and joining technology, the punching, the forming, and the surface technology. Its target group is the decision-makers from metal processing, steel construction, mechanical engineering, vehicle construction, electrical engineering, precision mechanics, and the iron, sheet-metal, and metalware industry. Under editor-in-chief Frauke Finus, blechnet combines the print magazine with the web platform, the twice-weekly newsletter, and the social-media presence — and serves as the official partner of the EuroBLECH and Blechexpo trade fairs.

Overview

The sheet-metal processing is the manufacturing industry's forming discipline: the laser cutting, the punching, the bending, and the joining that turn the flat sheet into the machine housings, the vehicle parts, and the steel structures. blechnet addresses the professionals who run these processes — the decision-makers in the sheet-metal-working companies — with the trade medium's program: the complete process chain from the cutting through the forming to the surface treatment. The magazine's positioning — "das Branchen-Magazin für Profis der Blech- und Rohrbearbeitung" (the industry magazine for sheet-metal and tube-processing professionals) — names the readership: the production managers, the investment decision-makers, and the process engineers.

The six-issue frequency serves the investment cycle: the machine-tool purchases, the automation projects, and the process optimizations that the readers decide. The EuroBLECH partnership deserves its trade-fair context. EuroBLECH — the world's largest exhibition for sheet-metal-working technology, organized by Mack Brooks Exhibitions in Hanover — is the industry's central marketplace: the machine-tool manufacturers presenting their premieres, the processors comparing the systems, the deals initiated. As the official partner publishing the trade-fair newspaper, blechnet becomes the fair's journalistic voice: the daily papers reporting the premieres, the trends, and the exhibitor news — the print medium inside the exhibition halls. The Blechexpo partnership — with P.E. Schall's Stuttgart fair — doubles the presence: the two fairs alternating in the industry's calendar, the blechnet brand at both. For the readers who cannot attend, the fair newspapers are the remote participation; for the exhibitors, they are the advertising platform at the moment of maximum attention. The "Mehr Effizienz im Presswerk" conference is the brand's practice institution. The annual specialist meeting on press-shop efficiency gathers the forming professionals — the production managers, the process engineers, the toolmakers — for the practice exchange: the efficiency projects presented, the automation cases discussed, the process optimizations debated. The press shop — the deep-drawing and stamping operations forming the car body parts and the appliance housings — is the sheet-metal processing's most capital-intensive stage: the presses, the dies, and the automation deciding the cost per part. The conference's agenda — the efficiency as the competitive factor — addresses the industry's permanent pressure: the automotive customers demanding the annual price reductions, the energy costs rising, the skilled workers scarce. The blechnet brand as the conference organizer extends the journalism into the live exchange: the readers meeting the experts, the magazine's topics debated in person.

History

blechnet's 2002 first issue positioned the Vogel Communications Group in the sheet-metal processing: the Würzburg specialist publisher's trade magazine for the complete process chain. The title's development tracked the industry's transformation: from the conventional punching and bending through the laser-cutting revolution to the current automation and digitalization — the bending cells, the autonomous machines, and the connected production. The Vogel group's industrial-media portfolio — the MM MaschinenMarkt, the blechnet, and the sibling titles — provided the publishing context: the cross-media reach into the manufacturing industry's decision-makers.

The trade-fair partnerships grew the brand beyond the publishing: as the official partner of the EuroBLECH (the world's largest sheet-metal-working technology exhibition, organized by Mack Brooks Exhibitions) and the Blechexpo (organized by P.E. Schall), blechnet publishes the trade-fair newspapers — the daily papers of the industry's central events. The "Mehr Effizienz im Presswerk" conference — the annual specialist meeting on press-shop efficiency — added the event format. The digital extension — the blechnet.com web platform, the twice-weekly newsletter, and the social-media channels — built the continuous information flow between the six print issues.

Coverage and Content

The print magazine follows the process chain. The cutting-technology coverage treats the laser cutting, the plasma and waterjet cutting, the punching, and the nibbling: the machine developments, the process comparisons, and the user reports. The forming-technology coverage addresses the bending, the deep drawing, and the roll forming: the press brakes, the automation, and the tooling. The joining-technology coverage treats the welding, the riveting, and the adhesive bonding. The surface-technology coverage addresses the deburring, the cleaning, and the coating. The automation trend — the coverage's current center — deserves its technological portrait. The sheet-metal processing's automation runs from the loading and unloading through the bending cells to the fully autonomous machines: the robots feeding the press brakes, the tool changers working unmanned, the software nesting the parts for the material yield. The machine-as-a-service models — the providers installing the fully automated laser-cutting or bending machines in the customers' own production, selling the capacity rather than the machine — lower the automation's entry barrier for the medium-sized processors. The remote-control bending cells — the experts programming and monitoring the cells from afar — extend the automation into the service. blechnet's coverage follows this transformation as the investment journalism: the technology evaluations, the user reports, and the ROI calculations that the decision-makers need before the capital expenditure. The twice-weekly newsletter keeps the pace: the product launches and the company news arriving as the industry moves.

The trade-fair newspapers — for EuroBLECH and Blechexpo — carry the daily fair reporting: the exhibitor news, the machine premieres, and the industry trends. The conference "Mehr Effizienz im Presswerk" presents the practice lectures: the efficiency projects, the automation cases, and the process optimizations. The web platform and the twice-weekly newsletter deliver the current news between the print issues: the product launches, the company news, and the market developments.

Organization and Ownership

blechnet is published by the Vogel Communications Group GmbH & Co. KG, the Würzburg specialist publisher — the house of the MM MaschinenMarkt and the industrial media portfolio. The editor-in-chief is Frauke Finus. The Vogel group's leadership and the industrial-media division provide the publishing infrastructure: the cross-media sales, the event organization, and the digital platforms.

Commercially, the medium follows the B2B trade-press model: subscriptions and controlled circulation to the sheet-metal industry's decision-makers — the 10,000-copy distributed circulation — and advertising from the industry's suppliers: the machine-tool manufacturers, the laser-system providers, the tooling makers, the automation suppliers, and the software houses. The trade-fair newspapers and the conference generate the event revenues: the exhibitors' advertising in the fair papers, the conference sponsors and participants. The official-partner status for EuroBLECH and Blechexpo gives the brand the privileged fair access that sustains the model.

Digital Presence

The brand's digital home is blechnet.com, the web platform carrying the industry news, the product reports, and the market overviews — the "Zulieferer Stanztechnik Werkzeugbau Rohrbearbeitung" supplier content and the CAD/CAM market overviews among the most-read formats. The twice-weekly newsletter delivers the regular briefing to the subscribers' inboxes. The social-media channels extend the brand into the professional networks. The Yumpu presence archives the digital magazine issues.

The digital strategy follows the trade-media logic: the print magazine for the curated process-chain reading — six issues a year — the web platform for the daily news and the supplier content, the newsletter for the briefing, and the trade-fair newspapers and the conference for the live industry. As the sheet-metal and tube processing's specialist medium — from the 2002 founding through the laser revolution to the automation present — blechnet operates as the industry's process-chain medium: the technology, the fairs, and the efficiency — six times a year in print, daily on blechnet.com.